Development Players

[Curtis]

I think it has been great that already this season we have seen some young development players named in the squad and getting some match day experience.

So far we have seen Jack Timberlake, Ollie Spicer, & Reece Mather make appearances, and on Saturday Balu Makumbi was in the squad.

But are we likely to have the patience & resources, and are we able to provide the opportunities to enable these players to develop into good quality Step 1 or 2 players? (our web-site currently says Jack Timberlake is ‘OUT ON LOAN’… maybe I’ve missed an announcement, it would be great to have some info on where he has gone).

Last season we had Oscar Lucey & Kai Allsopp that looked promising, and if I recall went out on loan to Thame & Ascot….. are they still signed with us but out on loan again?

And lastly, did Josh Stranks come through our EDS programme? I thought he played well in our pre-season match against Luton U21’s…… is he now at Thame?

 

[grandad]

There was an X/Twitter post a week ago (?) saying Jack was now on dual reg with Badshot Lea.

[Curtis]

21 minutes ago, grandad said:

There was an X/Twitter post a week ago (?) saying Jack was now on dual reg with Badshot Lea.

Thank you…. it looks like Jack made his debut for Badshot Lea on Saturday. He came on at half-time and scored in a 5-3 away defeat to a play-off place Kingstonian (Badshot Lea are bottom and winless so far).

The Badshot Lea team also included the familiar names of Kai Allsopp & Harvey Harry.

Edited October 7 by Curtis

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Curtis said:

I think it has been great that already this season we have seen some young development players named in the squad and getting some match day experience.

So far we have seen Jack Timberlake, Ollie Spicer, & Reece Mather make appearances, and on Saturday Balu Makumbi was in the squad.

But are we likely to have the patience & resources, and are we able to provide the opportunities to enable these players to develop into good quality Step 1 or 2 players? (our web-site currently says Jack Timberlake is ‘OUT ON LOAN’… maybe I’ve missed an announcement, it would be great to have some info on where he has gone).

Last season we had Oscar Lucey & Kai Allsopp that looked promising, and if I recall went out on loan to Thame & Ascot….. are they still signed with us but out on loan again?

And lastly, did Josh Stranks come through our EDS programme? I thought he played well in our pre-season match against Luton U21’s…… is he now at Thame?

 

Most of these players have mainly only played academy/boys/youth football.

The obvious move is to send them out on dual reg to experience playing senior/men's football on a regular basis rather than sitting on the bench.

It'll soon become apparent if they are good enough to be considered for the 1st team.

One of the biggest problems as I see it is the gap between A23 academy football and the NLS which is huge.

Edited October 7 by Reading Rebel

[SloughFlyer]

We recently saw a game between Binfield and Uxbridge that had Timberlake and Roth playing for Uxbridge and Ryan North in goal for Binfield. Good experience for all of them (less needed for Roth but I would assume that was more for game time) and development.

It's funny as one of the best prospects recently has been Tenconi and I suspect after the initial success he had, as things went forwards I doubt he would have been a regular off the bat (I also seem to remember a certain team captain took quite a while to break in and stay in the first team). These dual registered/ loans are ideal to bridge the gap between the academy and first team and I'm sure we will continue to get a few gems out of A23.

[Curtis]

On 07/10/2024 at 14:50, SloughFlyer said:

It's funny as one of the best prospects recently has been Tenconi and I suspect after the initial success he had, as things went forwards I doubt he would have been a regular off the bat

I heard there was a fair bit of interest in Tenconi from Football League clubs, so if he had wanted a career in football I would have thought by now he would have been at a League One or Two club & starting regularly.

[Reading Rebel]

53 minutes ago, Curtis said:

I heard there was a fair bit of interest in Tenconi from Football League clubs, so if he had wanted a career in football I would have thought by now he would have been at a League One or Two club & starting regularly.

Tenconi is still in the USA playing and studying at Stanford Uni.

[Curtis]

18 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

Tenconi is still in the USA playing and studying at Stanford Uni.

He is, and Stanford University is one of the best universities in the world…… so although he is in their football squad (ranked as one of the top 10 university teams in the US), I would say he has prioritised getting a fantastic education over focusing on a career in football.

What do you think?

[Reading Rebel]

4 hours ago, Curtis said:

He is, and Stanford University is one of the best universities in the world…… so although he is in their football squad (ranked as one of the top 10 university teams in the US), I would say he has prioritised getting a fantastic education over focusing on a career in football.

What do you think?

Being a pro footballer is short term and very few make a decent living from it.

Very sensibly Tenconi realizes that getting a degree and a well paid job is his priority. 

[Martin]

I think Tenconi went to Eton so it is more likely he'll end up in the Cabinet than the Football League. 

[Curtis]

15 hours ago, Martin said:

I think Tenconi went to Eton so it is more likely he'll end up in the Cabinet than the Football League. 

You would have thought so, but I was messing about searching for the last Etonian to play professional football, and came across Tudor Mendel-Idowu, a Slough born academic child prodigy who went to Eton College & was in Chelsea’s football academy, and is currently at Ipswich….. and he is only 19!

Anyone know him or ever heard of him?

[Ian g f]

He wasn't in my year 😂